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I love to hunt. I don’t get to go as often as I like, for various reasons, but I do enjoy it. My list of game that have been taken over the years is not large, but includes deer, several caribou, a bull moose and an Alaska grizzly bear. I also love to camp. Not in campers, but way out in the bush, on the ground under a tarp. I love 4-wheelers, bush planes, river boats and snowmobiles. I like to cook, love guns, training horses, leather work, splitting firewood and just being a man. I tell you all of this for a reason.

I also love to preach and teach the Bible. There is nothing that remotely compares to studying the word of God prayerfully, and having Him finally give your poor, thick skull understanding of a simple truth that you’ve been wrestling with for weeks or even years, and then being allowed to stand up and share that truth with others who were searching just like you. When a man has found Christ, and has come to the place where he is in fellowship with Christ on a daily, personal level in a very real way, a part of him is found, made alive and fulfilled that had been shriveled and dead since the introduction of sin.

And I read poetry. Yes. You read that right. I love good poetry. I love Longfellow, Kipling, Frost, Service and others. I read it at times to the family after supper, and I’ve even been known to even try my hand at writing a little.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

That is just a couple of stanzas from Longfellow’s “The Day is Done”, my favorite poem of all time. How can you come in from a long, hard day of honest work and dealing with life’s battles, kiss your wife and hug your kids hello, eat a good hot supper, then sit down in your favorite chair and read that poem and not smile? Instead, you come in, flop down and what? Watch the blathering turmoil on Fox News? CNN? CSI?

Again, I tell you this for a reason.

Let’s go back. Way back. Back to the very beginning. Remember in Genesis 1:26-27 when God vocalized his intention to create man?

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

So, here we see two things.

First, God, who is one God, says to himself “Let us make man in our image, …” God is a plurality, a trinity, three in one. We see this in several places in scripture, the most obvious and plain spoken is in 1 John.

1John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

We also see it at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, when we have Jesus standing in the water, the Father’s voice speaking from above and the Spirit descending like a dove. Three entities of One God. A trinity.

So when God says “Let us make man in our image…” what did he mean? God has a head, arms and legs, right? No. God made man a trinity, in his image.

1Th 5:14-23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are a trinity. When Satan tempted Eve, what was the temptation?

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

1. She saw that the tree was “good for food” - the body…

2. … and that it “was pleasant to the eyes” - beautiful, the soul

3. …and “desired to make one wise” - the spirit.

Satan was no fool, he knew more about us than we know about ourselves. He tempted the entire trinity of humanity. In case one area of temptation failed, he had assaulted the other two at the same time. Still not sure? How about this one?

Satan tempts Jesus in his humanity.

1. ”Command that these stones be made bread.” - the body

2. “…and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;”… tempted by the beautiful, the soul

3. “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down:” - the spirit tempted through the pride of life.

The exact same attack that was leveled against the first Adam through his woman was leveled against the second Adam through his very ministry. And it’s leveled against us the same way. Through all three individual parts of our trinity, which is in the image of God.

So what in the world does this have to do with my first random observations at the beginning of this section?!?

I believe that this world today is full of incomplete men, both inside and outside of Christianity. Men who have lost touch with entire sections of themselves, men who are born, raised, live and die only aware of, only developing, a fraction of who God created them to be. We have entire segments of society who are solely given over to the wellbeing of the body, but totally ignore the feeding of the soul. The spiritual things are purported to be sought by many in the ministry, but their health and the beauty of the created universe around them is ignored to the point that they loose all touch with the soul of humanity and become ugly, lumpy, wheezing wretches full of anger, emptiness, legality and brittle indignation.

Who was known as “a man after God’s own heart”? David. The lad David. The youth David. The fugitive David. The warrior David. The King David. The Psalmist David.

Do a careful study in scripture as to how many men David killed in single combat as a warrior.

Do another careful study of the soulful David, the David who danced before God unashamed, who loved Johnathon as his own soul, who wrote poetry about the creation of God, who sang songs and played instruments.

And then look at the Spiritual David, his searching for and longing for God. His praise, worship, repentance, weeping, studying, praying, meditating and focusing on all things of God.

A man “after God’s own heart”

A man who was almost back to the complete, whole picture of what God originally, lovingly intended man to be. Not a soulless brute plowing like a mule, never looking up from his endless furrows till death finally overtakes him. Not a spineless fop who can only trill witless ditties and lightly deceive foolish women. Not a soulless zealot who ruthlessly serves his God by burning his fellow man at the stake.

Endeavor to be a complete man. A little culture will not turn you into a weakling, and a little blood will not make you beast. And you can love your God by loving your fellow man, and still have the courage at the same time to stand firm and be counted against their sin.

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And I read poetry. Yes. You read that right. I love good poetry. I love Longfellow, Kipling, Frost, Service and others. I read it at times to the family after supper, and I’ve even been known to even try my hand at writing a little.

Looking forward to reading some of your poetry. I am sure that you will do just fine.